


So All the Things Can Grow

by DandelionDani



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dryad!Molly, Fix-It of Sorts, Mollymauk Tealeaf Lives, Nymphs & Dryads, Prophetic Dreams, Prophetic Visions, Visions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23532628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DandelionDani/pseuds/DandelionDani
Summary: The earth remembered Mollymauk Tealeaf.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay & Mollymauk Tealeaf
Comments: 10
Kudos: 91





	So All the Things Can Grow

**Author's Note:**

> So this idea actually started with a cosplay idea I'm working on, and I'm kind of in love with it so now I have to write it. First chapter is mostly Caduceus tho and I love him. Anyways enjoy the first chapter even tho its short.

The visions were vague, at first.

_ A sapling springing from the hard, cold earth, out of its season, a strange and unlikely strength emphasized by its delicate swaying leaves. It persisted past the snow and ice, reaching upwards against all odds.  _

Caduceus could feel its unfaltering will. It was stubborn. He liked that about it.

He knew the difference in quality between a dream and a vision. The Wildmother wasn't speaking yet, but he could feel her presence lurking in these particular nighttime escapades, her artistic flair coloring the plants with an unknown vibrancy to the real life counterparts. They were intentional.

_ Elegant branches stretched towards the sky, leaves a wild riot of warm, fantastical pinks and purples, ranging from the lightest blossom pink to a purple so deep it appeared black, unruly and beautiful among a forest of green and brown. The bark had an undertone of lovely deep purple, lavish and extravagant in its presentation, almost like it wanted to be noticed. _

It was certainly working, too. He didn't know what the Wildmother was trying to tell him, but something about these visions left him mildly unsettled. Like he was forgetting something.

_ A faded red coat fluttered in the wind, carefully caught on a branch of gnarled wood stuck firmly into the ground. Backed by a massive, colorful tree, it seemed right at home. Countless images in haphazard patterns spread across the coat, the raised ridges of embroidery soft and slightly fuzzy from weathering but somehow oddly intact. Lovely purple lichen climbed up the wooden grave marker, creeping onto the coat in places and rooting the fabric onto the long dead branch. _

Caduceus had heard stories, seen Jester's sketches of the coat. She still sometimes sat down and spent a few hours carefully making beautiful artwork depicting its owner. He had watched her charcoal and ink trace along a sharp jawline, delicately capture the gleam of glittering jewelry, strike through a devilish, fanged grin with harsh, dramatic shadow. Though Caduceus had never met the man, he still felt a certain odd and intimate familiarity to Mollymauk Tealeaf. The coat was different and yet exactly the same in the vision.

The sun rose hot one morning after one such vision, steaming the morning dew off the grass and shaking off the night's chill in record time. Caduceus watched Fjord and Beau compete at push ups, laughing low and pleased as his half-orc protege groaned and complained the entire time. Beau stood easily and stretched, making some presumably snarky comment to Fjord before extending a hand to help him to his feet. 

Caleb sat quietly on a log across from last night's fire, reading his latest acquired book as Veth stood behind him, braiding flowers into his hair. Caduceus thought the little white daisies looked rather lovely next to Caleb's warm ginger waves. Next to them, Jester and Yasha sat in similar positions, though Yasha's wild mane and Jester's less practiced hands made for a little bit more hair pulling and a lot more giggling. Yasha winced as Jester yanked a particularly stubborn section of hair, then laughed quietly as Jester apologized profusely and with the high level of energy and sincerity that seemed to endear her to every soul on the material plane and beyond.

After Fjord and Beau had finished their morning routine, Beau with relative grace and Fjord with significantly more whining, the group gathered back around the remnants of the fire to pack up their things. An image of Mollymauk's tree surfaced in Caduceus' mind and he gazed around at his friends, only a few seasons finished grieving for a man he had never met. He frowned deeply, aware that he may be brushing on some wounds not fully healed by bringing his visions to the group. 

"Caduceus?" Caleb asked, looking up from where he had begun packing his bedroll. "You are, ah– what is the matter? You seem tense."

"I believe…" Caduceus began, before pausing, trying to figure out how to verbalize his vague intuitions, "It might be wise of us to head towards Glory Run Road."

The silence that followed was messy, unintentional, tight and thin with tension. Caduceus could see Beau tense in his periphery, saw Fjord reach up to lay a steadying hand on her shoulder, before seeming to lose his nerve and drop it to his side. Yasha's eyes shot up from where they had been inspecting her pack, finding Caduceus and holding some kind of barely contained storm inside. Caleb retreated immediately, turning his gaze to the ground, trying and failing not to appear like he'd been struck. No one spoke for a long moment, but Caduceus was patient, and eventually Fjord broke the silence by clearing his throat.

"Is there… any particular reason for that?" His voice was casual, but Caduceus could detect an undercurrent of nervousness. The stiffness in Fjord's stance betrayed him, seemingly too caught off guard for even his innate skills in deception to fool Caduceus' keen eyes.

"Something grew," he answered simply, "and it's only right that you all go see it."

\---

_ Lavender hands burst through fertile soil, clawing at the ground around them, vying for purchase. The hands struggle frantically, and the ground bows outward before falling inward, a shock of purple hair erupting from the earth. A man with curled horns and rusting silver jewelry that Caduceus had never met but heard many stories of spat grave dirt from his mouth. He was gasping for breath, trembling, half buried in the disturbed soil. _

_ Caduceus could only watch as the man slowly pulled himself fully free and curled against the dirt, chest heaving from the effort. He didn't move from that position for the rest of the vision. Until sunrise, it was only trembling hands curled tight around dirt smeared arms, hollow eyes staring into the darkness, and the sound of quiet, horrified sobbing. _

_ \--- _

Caduceus woke with the sun and sat slowly, eyes gummy and ears pressed flat against his skull. Echoes of Mollymauk's shuddering, terrified gasps lingered in the back of his mind. He dug his fingers into the dirt, trying to stop his hands from trembling.

Beau, who had kept the last watch of the night, glanced over and frowned deeply.

"You okay, Deuce?" She asked, hesitant, still trying to learn the difference between what was friendly concern and what was being nosy.

Caduceus took a deep breath to center himself first, attempting to smooth the ragged edges of helplessness and fear left over from the vision, "I'm okay. We should hurry, though."

Beau was quiet for a long, thoughtful moment. She opened her mouth, closed it, turned her head to stare at anything but Caduceus. He waited patiently for her to decide to speak her mind.

"You don't have to be so fuckin' cryptic all the time, dude. You can just say what you mean."

"I do say what I mean," Caduceus replied, frowning because it was true.

Beau groaned, loudly and petulantly enough for Fjord to sit up and squint towards her, blinking in the pale light of the very early morning. 

"What?" She said, in the kind of tone that said she was daring someone to argue with her, secretly hoping they would so she could tell them off.

"Nothing, nothing," Fjord held up his hands in surrender, seemingly not willing to humor her at this hour of the morning. He stretched, letting out a massive yawn that put his tusks on full display, prominent now that he had let them grow out. "So. What were you two… discussing?"

Caduceus rubbed some of the crust from his eyes as he replied, "Beau asked me to say what I mean, which is a little silly considering I already do that."

"It's true, Beau. In fact I think he only says things he means," Fjord replied, a tiny hint of mischief in his voice.

Beau groaned again, somehow louder and even more petulant than before, "You know what I meant."

"I actually don't," Caduceus said, feeling himself relax into the comfortable routine of mild banter. "But in all seriousness. I do think we should hurry."

"Hurry?" Fjord began shifting out of his bedroll and straightening his sleep-twisted clothes, "What for?"

He thought for a long moment, torn on what would be too much to tell, on what would really convey his message. Fjord and Beau seemed to see him contemplating and gave him the time to think.

"Well," he finally said, a slight hesitation still lingering, "Your friend, Mister Mollymauk… he may need our help. Or perhaps the Mother is just trying to tell me something is wrong."

"Something's wrong?" Beau asked, sitting up straighter.

"The Mother is trying to move us a bit faster I think."

Fjord frowned as he unfolded his cloak and absently brushed his thumb along the pin that Caduceus had given him, still proudly displayed. "What did you see?" 

"I saw," Caduceus took a slow breath, seeing again in his mind shaking lavender hands and dirt smeared skin, "I saw a grave. I saw a purple tiefling. I watched him dig his way out of the dirt, then I," he faltered, trailing off momentarily to tug on the slightly fraying hem of his shirt, " I had to… watch him cry. Alone. Until sunrise."

Beau sucked in a breath and seemed to hold it, tense and like she needed to punch something. Fjord stared at him, then let out a quiet and shaky, "Oh."

"Yeah," Caduceus breathed, nearly tempted to cast a quick Calm Emotion spell on himself as he felt the dread creep back up his spine and over his head in a wave, "So. I think we should hurry. If not because something might be wrong, then perhaps to conclude this… vision quest… I seem to be having."

"I guess we'd better get a move on, then," Fjord said, tone brokering no argument as he shoved his feet into his boots.

"Why are we getting a move on?" Caleb mumbled, accent thick with sleep as he sat up, disturbing Veth as he did so.

"Cad had another vision about Molly," Beau supplied.

Veth yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Another one? This soon?" 

"Actually," Caduceus confessed, "I've been having them nearly every night for a bit. But this one felt–" he managed to trap the word 'horrible' in his mind before it left his mouth, "well it felt important."

"You've been having visions of Molly and you only thought  _ this one _ was important?" Veth nearly shouted, sudden and loud in the still morning air.

Jester stirred from beneath a pile of blankets, letting out a soft and sleepy "What?" Yasha grumbled something likely rude in Celestial as she pulled her blanket up over her head.

"Well, no. Most of them are just plants, or a grave, or a coat. He was… he was in this one," Caduceus replied.

"Hmph," Veth huffed, grumpy in the early morning.

Caleb got to his feet slowly and gave Veth a passing pat on the head, "Well? What did you see?" 

Beau must have seen the slight droop in Caduceus' ears, because she interrupted before he was forced to respond, "Apparently the shithead came back. Or at least that's what happened in the vision."

"Oh," Caleb responded, and Caduceus could see his brain working from where he sat, see him compartmentalize and shove any outward emotional reaction into a box to be dealt with later, then continue, "I guess we go then. And see."

Yasha, finally sitting up and staring blearily across camp, mumbled, "What shithead's back? Do I need to kill something? Why are we up so early?"

"Uh," Beau replied eloquently.

Fjord sighed quietly, "Caduceus saw Molly. In his vision. He thinks we should hurry up."

Suddenly very awake, Yasha stared at Fjord for a few seconds, then turned her piercing gaze to Caduceus, "You saw Molly? What– what was he– was he alive? Okay? What– what did you see?"

"He was…" Caduceus kept eye contact with Yasha, knowing she likely needed him to, "Alive. But… he might need help."

Yasha didn't let that sit for long, standing up and beginning to shove her things into her pack, "Then let's fucking go."

Jester, who had been watching the exchange with wide eyes, began to do the same, haphazardly gathering her things with fervor. She furrowed her brow and bit her lip, clearly cooking up some kind of plan that was likely to be wildly unreasonable and yet impossible to say no to. Caduceus prepared himself to have some  _ talks _ during the next few days of travel. His new family, this group of disasters, needed him to be solid, now more than ever. He was the only one unfamiliar to this brightly colored tiefling that they were all so enamored with. Taking a slow, steadying breath, Caduceus did his best to release the tension in his shoulders. 


End file.
